Muswell Hill

Can anyone help? Is the US mile longer than the Imperial mile-in terms of yards or feet? Not the nautical mile, but the land mile?

Just curious. Hope someone can enlighten me.

Cheers!!!!!

Patrick

No, the mile is 1,609 meters the world over, except in Belgium where it is 1,608 meters due to the Belgium chocolate covenant of 1603

The word comes from the Latin word for 1000, mille, because originally a mile was the distance a Roman legion could march in 1000 paces (or 2000 steps, a pace being the distance between successive falls of the same foot). There is some uncertainty about the length of the Roman mile. Based on the Roman foot of 29.6 centimeters and assuming a standard pace of 5 Roman feet, the Roman mile would have been 1480 meters (4856 feet); however, the measured distance between surviving milestones of Roman roads is often closer to 1520 meters or 5000 feet. In any case, miles of similar lengths were used throughout Western Europe. In medieval Britain, several mile units were used, including a mile of 5000 feet (1524 meters), the modern mile defined as 8 furlongs (1609 meters), and a longer mile similar to the French mille (1949 meters), plus the Scottish mile
(1814 meters) and the Irish mile (2048 meters). In 1592 the British Parliament settled the question by defining the statute mile to be 8 furlongs, 80 chains, 320 rods, 1760 yards or 5280 feet. The statute mile is exactly 1609.344 meters. In athletics, races of 1500 or 1600 meters are often called metric miles.

Muswell Hill

Thanks Patrick, I feel fully informed now! I was *hoping* it was shorter than the UK mile so that it would mean my car had done less 'miles' when thinking in UK miles.....it does seem though that 1 mile in the UK takes longer to drive on the M40 at 70MPH than here on the interstate at 70 MPH.....weird, or maybe it is just me?????

Lion in Winter

The Imperial Mile is the street around Buck. House and St. James's that is covered in red asphalt, instead of the common black kind.

The U.S. Mile is the distance which requires a four by four truck to cover, walking being out of the question.

doctor scrumpy

Ah but as most women will tell you, the whole system of measuring is based on the falsehood that all men believe the distance <_________________________________> to be 12 inches long !

Ash UK/US

ROTFLMAO